Angels continue winning ways over Dodgers, 6-3 - latimes.com
Bobby Abreu hit a clutch three-run, score-tying homer in the sixth, shortstop Brandon Wood made a game-saving play in the eighth, and Brian Fuentes threw a scoreless ninth for his 11th save, as the Angels improved to 4-0 against the Dodgers this season.With the score tied, 3-3, Rivera lined a double to left-center off Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw to open the seventh. Mike Napoli struck out, but Rivera took third on Kershaw's balk. This seemed a good time to replace Rivera, one of baseball's slowest runners, with Reggie Willits, but Angels Manager Mike Scioscia stuck with Rivera, a costly decision when Rivera wandered too far off the bag and was picked off by catcher Russell Martin. "That spot was going to come up in the ninth inning, and we wanted to keep Juan's bat in there," Scioscia said. "If we were losing, I might think harder about that move."
In all honesty, I missed a lot of the last night's game due to the BlogTalkRadio stuff. So, I'll just post the highlights: Abreu's three-run blast ties the ballgame - Bobby Abreu ties the score in dramatic fashion, ripping a three-run homer to deep center field, Frandsen lines a two-run double to left - Kevin Frandsen caps a late Angels rally with a two-out, two-run two-base hit into the left-field corner, extending the lead to 6-3 (the key to this video is seeing former Angel Garret Anderson lettting the ball get by him for an error), Wood dives to start an amazing double play - Brandon Wood makes an outstanding diving stop at short, then flips with his glove to second to start an amazing double play, Kendrick's clutch RBI hit puts the Angels up - Howard Kendrick comes through with a clutch RBI single, giving the Angels their first lead of the ballgame in the seventh inning.
Dodgers-Angels Preview - 6/23/10 - FOX Sports on MSN
Tuesday's victory opened what could be a key 12-game homestand for the Angels, who are hoping to trim the 3 1/2-game gap on division-leading Texas, the hottest team in baseball with nine wins in a row. Sending Joel Pineiro (6-6, 4.45 ERA) to the mound could help. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA in four career starts against the Dodgers after throwing a five-hitter with seven strikeouts in a 10-1 victory June 11. He carried that success into his next outing last Wednesday, yielding one run and three hits in eight innings of a 5-1 win over Milwaukee. "My go-to pitch is that sinker," Pineiro told the team's official website. "Going as long as I can, as hard as I can, that's my main goal." (yeah, me too) The Dodgers have dropped a season high-tying five in a row and are trying to avoid their longest losing streak since an eight-game slide from Aug. 22-29, 2008. They'll give John Ely (3-4, 4.15) a chance at his first victory in a month, but he'll have to rebound from his worst performance of the season. The rookie right-hander is 0-3 with a 4.97 ERA in five games since a May 22 win against Detroit. That stretch includes a 4-2 loss to the Angels on June 12, when Ely allowed four runs in five innings.
Erick Aybar probably will go on 15-day disabled list with bad knee - latimes.com
Erick Aybar appears headed for the 15-day disabled list after receiving a cortisone injection Tuesday in his left knee, which the shortstop injured when Milwaukee's Casey McGehee slid into his leg while breaking up a double play on June 14.The Angels will probably decide Thursday or Friday, when they can gauge the effectiveness of the shot, whether to place Aybar on the DL, but they appear to be leaning that way.
Rangers drop Bucs, stretch majors' longest win streak to nine - CBSSports.com
Hamilton extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a home run and a double, Borbon hit a go-ahead three-run homer and the AL West-leading Rangers stretched the majors' longest winning streak to nine with a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in a homestand opener Tuesday night.
Texas is taking advantage of their schedule against weak teams.
On Reading Trade Rumors - FanGraphs Baseball
For those who obsess over Major League Baseball like I do and like I know many of you reading do and like many of those fans who won’t ever set eyes upon this blog do, trade rumors are a regular part of our baseball watching and reading. For some reason, we care about what Ken Rosenthal and Buster Olney and other major league sources are saying. Based on the volume of rumors around the game – MLB Trade Rumors averages 104 posts per week – these sources sure have much to say. But in this case, and in many others, all this talk adds up to nothing.
My Trip to Chicago and Wrigley Field in Words, Links, and Photos - The Baseball Analysts - Rich Lederer
I traveled to Chicago on Wednesday for business and attended the Angels-Cubs games on Friday and Saturday at Wrigley Field. It was my first trip to the Windy City in five years. I returned home on Sunday and watched the final round of the U.S. Open before celebrating Father's Day dinner with my family. Here were the highlights of my trip:
1994 - Oakland P Bobby Witt narrowly misses hurling a perfect game, defeating Kansas City on a 4 - 0, one-hitter. Umpire Gary Cederstrom calls Greg Gagne safe on a close play at first in the 6th inning, for the Royals' only hit, but TV replays show that Gagne was out. The play goes 1B Troy Neel to Witt covering. Witt fans 14 and does not walk a batter in his masterpiece. (sound familiar?)
Happy b-day:
1886 - Johnny Priest, infielder (d. 1979)
1913 - Bill Cox, pitcher (d. 1988)
1920 - Deacon Donahue, pitcher (d. 2008)
A priest, a deacon, and a Cox walk into a bar...
See what happens when B-Wood gets on base:
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game Information |
| Attendance - 41595 |
| Game Time - 2:52 |
| Temperature - 70 |
| Umpires - Home - Bill Welke, First Base - Mike DiMuro, Second Base - Tim Welke, Third Base - Jim Reynolds |
0 recs | 28 comments
Is there video of GA's first real plate appearance at the house he helped build?
I was dominating company softball at the time…would like to see it.
Commander_Nate - June 23, 2010
Loved GA's Post Game Quote
This was responding to a question about his error on the ball hit by Frandsen:
"Ever since they raised the padding on that wall out there, there’s always been problems over there," Anderson said. "That concrete is exposed, and it’s a coin flip. … The padding always used to go all the way to the dirt, so the ball never kicked that far. I remember errors in two straight games after they raised the padding, so I never ran over there aggressively any more since then."
So, that’s he didn’t run aggressively? Wow. . .but that doesn’t really explain all the other times, “he didn’t run aggresively.”
righteous halo - June 23, 2010
Say what you want, but
our current corner outfielders (Matsui included) make GA look like a gold-glover. I was NEVER as frustrated with GA as I get when Rivera keeps twisting himself around on any fly ball has to go back on, or when Abreu lets one drop in front of him. Even Torii had been getting horrible jumps a couple weeks back (but he’s looked better to me this last week at least).
Rally Manatee - June 23, 2010
GA was great in left field.
He knew what he was doing, and he did it well.
If you weren’t so lazy, you’d see that.
AlanFalcon - June 23, 2010
+1
Downing Rules - June 23, 2010
I loved it so much that I "fanshot" it!
Priceless quote.
Downing Rules - June 23, 2010
Ah, Halolinks just in time.
My morning sanity thanks you.
snowhor - June 23, 2010 via mobile
At least the rangers are setting themselves up
for an epic, post all-star break meltdown.
clover_black - June 23, 2010
Keep doin what you did last night!
The Angels can’t worry about TX right now, they just need to ignore the standings and keep winning. Last night was a textbook win. Santana gave up some runs early, but found a way to keep us in the game even though he didn’t have his best stuff. Our offense was patient, waited until Kershaw got wild, then went for the jugular. And most importantly, our bullpen didn’t give up any runs. The only blip was Rivera’s bonehead base running, but even that didn’t get his teammates down! I felt like he blew our best chance, but the Angels proved me wrong with some sweet 2 out magic. I want more of that kind of baseball! They looked so much better, grittier than the confused rabble of the early season. (How much of that grit can we attribute to Frandsen? I’m really starting to love that guy!)
Rally Manatee - June 23, 2010
On the topic of ignoring the standings
I completely ignore the Wild Card standings because I feel that the only way the Angels make the playoffs is to win the AL West.
However I thought this was interesting:
On May 24 the Angels were 12 games behind the Wild Card leading Rays.
Today the Angels are just 3.5 games behind the Rays.
Again, I don’t expect the Angels to have a shot at the Wild Card. But it is interesting that the Angels picked up so much ground on the Rays.
Fan Since 1981 - June 23, 2010
Perhaps more aptly put,
the Rays gave ground to us. Unfortunately, that also means they are giving ground to Boston and NY.
It’s also cool to see that our division leaders (us and TX) are catching up in the W column with the rest of baseball. For a while there, we were looking like the NL West in the days where the Padres went to the playoffs like 2 games over .500.
Rally Manatee - June 23, 2010
Rich's steak overdone at Morton's.
Hey, Rich. It’s friggin’ Morton’s! If your steak doesn’t come the way you ordered it, send it back! Given the amount you’re paying for it, you’re entitled.
red floyd - June 23, 2010
i don't think al west wc is impossible
the al east has three teams that will likely pummel each other not counting the blue jays. the a’s are average at best, so that leaves only two legitimate contenders in the west. add to that the soft interleague schedule and i don’t think it’s impossible to see texas and the angels in october. which i would love.
Kernel - June 23, 2010
This
I made a similar prediction during the spring. How are the Yankees, Rays or Sox going to win 95+ each if they beat each other (including Toronto) to the pulp of a near-.500 record within their own division?
Commander_Nate - June 23, 2010
Because they will each win
40 games against Baltimore. Yup. Even the ones who only have 12 games left against the O’s will somehow accomplish this feat.
RallyMonkey5 - June 23, 2010
Well to beat a dead horse...
whether we get in on a wild card slot or win the AL west.
Our starting staff and bullpen is going to need to step up big or we’re going to be playing golf a week after the playoffs start.
RexTookMyStash - June 23, 2010
In a five game series
I like my chances with Weaver, Ervin, and Pineiro pitching 4 games. If set up correctly, that group would pitch 6 out of a 7 game series. Bullpen is a different story, though maybe by that time we’ll be comfortable handling leads to Jepsen, Kohn, and K-Rod II and letting the expensive ones watch from the bench.
Long way to go to get to that point though.
RallyMonkey5 - June 23, 2010
The Emperor has no clothes.
Not ready to grant that status to the Rangers yet.
Easiest schedule in baseball by a West Texas mile. The stats and record are padded with cannon fodder. 3.5 game lead.
No clothes.
LAASurfin - June 23, 2010
Texas has the 27th strongerst schedule in baseball right now
LA Angels are 7th.
http://scorecenter.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rpi?sort=sos
RexTookMyStash - June 23, 2010
Yup, they're pretty much naked right now
strongest*
RexTookMyStash - June 23, 2010
I watch that ESPN ranking sometimes too
Kind of nice the way they calculate their Relative Power Index ‘BCS-like’.
Be aware though, the .489 SOS number shown for the Rangers is the average winning percentage of teams they will face for the entire year (Not for the even easier schedule they have faced thus far).
The average winning percentage for teams they face in June is .448.
Weakest. In. Baseball.
The average winning percentage for teams they face in the first half of the season is .472.
3.5 game lead.
Post All Star Break:
Rangers face a .510 SOS
Angels face a .496 SOS
No clothes.
LAASurfin - June 23, 2010
Baltimore and the Central Division
eyespy - June 23, 2010
All I've got to say is frandsen screaming at 3rd
After his triple was the highlight of the year right now. That is exactly what this team needs a guy to light a fire under their asses. Frandsen needs to stay in the lineup.
angelskid2210 - June 23, 2010 via mobile
Yeah that was rad.
It’s nice to see that kind of drive and enthusiasm. It’s contagious and I’m sure his teammates noticed.
RexTookMyStash - June 23, 2010
He definitely used the 'F' word!
But I suspect the Rev will let him use more than one per month.
raskul - June 23, 2010
I think I like Pineiro even more now...
Cracked me up…
K3YEROUT - June 23, 2010
In my sad and pathetic way...
I enjoyed that double play combo last night of Brandon and Howard…probably won’t see too much more of it in their careers, but that is sooo what I envisioned 3-4 years ago for the present.
Now about that batting average Brandon…
K3YEROUT - June 23, 2010
Its progress
and hopefully building some confidence for him.
If Wood is actually getting his shit together, our infield could be the 1st 4 batters in our lineup in future years
Aybar
Kendrick
Wood
Morales
I can dream can’t I?
Seik1177 - June 23, 2010
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Halos Heaven to post a comment.